[EAS] FCC Seeks Comment on Multilingual EAS

[Barry Mishkind]

At 04:44 PM 3/12/2014, Tim Stoffel wrote:
>What, and are stations that don't have news department suddenly supposed to have news departments that can follow up on EAS alerts?

        Well, that *would* be in the spirit of serving  
        the community of license. 

        Yes, I agree, many, many broadcasters do no
        more than give lip service to the community
        (no pun intended).

        Every station is currently required to know what
        is being broadcast, and monitor it as necessary.
        Almost any staffer can provide basic information
        in an emergency - IF the station cares.

        Yes, I know, some of those who speak other
        languages report horrid example of profanity    
        or other violations, simply because management
        does not care.

        Of course, we can go back to the point: EAS
        is voluntary ... and under the current rules,
        no station can be forced to be a good citizen.
        Again... there is an engineering solution to 
        multiple languages, a programming solution,
        a practical, community serving solution ;... and
        the political solution.